Pakistan Taliban raid prison, frees hundreds

Taliban fighters armed with mortars and grenades have attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan, escaping with about 250 prisoners after a gunfight with security forces, officials have said.

At least 12 people including six police were killed and eight others wounded in the assault late on Monday staged by fighters disguised in police uniforms, officials said.

The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began around midnight on Tuesday morning with a huge explosion, intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters.

The fighters then detonated a series of smaller bombs to destroy the prison's boundary wall.

"Police and other law enforcing agencies are busy in clearing the jail," senior government official Mushtaq Jadoon said, adding authorities have imposed a curfew in the city and asked residents to stay at home.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the capital Islamabad, said: "I would describe it (attack) as extremely calculated."

Officials have said, in all between 40-45 so-called high-profile or high-value prisoners were freed, our correspondent said.